Knitterly thoughts from Louise Zass-Bangham

Menu

A gift that gives back

One of my favourite things about this time of year is coming back to other crafts that maybe don’t see as much love as my knitting the rest of the year. We had so much fun doing a craftalong together in the Inspiration Knits group on Ravelry last year that we decided to do it again this year. No restrictions to knitting only, we’ve been quietly crafting along and admiring everyone’s finishes, whether they’re knitting or sewing or cardmaking…

…or felting! Last year’s craftalong inspired me to come up with two patterns for felted gift bags: Three Cheers and Gifted. Both bags are permanently part of the pattern collection at p/hop for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), an amazing way that MSF raises money through the support of knitters and crocheters. All of their patterns are free to download with a donation to the charity.

With it being such a dreadful year in many parts of the world, I wanted to work with p/hop again to bring you a pattern that could also help you with any last minute gift-giving of your own – and help MSF help those who need our help desperately. The result are the Ember mitts. These fingerless gloves knit up fairly quickly in a DK-weight yarn and feature one large cable down the back of the hand. Like many of my fingerless mitts patterns, they’re also a generous length as I hate it when my wrists get cold!

The Ember Mitts

Ember was originally designed for Knit Now magazine and since the rights to the pattern have reverted back to me, it’s time for this design go out in the world, with the opportunity to make a difference.

Sadly, the original yarn is no longer available as it was the Dazzle DK by the Natural Dye Studio, but I think they’d look amazing in a semi-solid hand-dyed yarn to get the stitch definition on the cables to really pop. Purlescence has some great DK options, as does Tangled Yarn (including delicious cashmere!) – or why not toss your stash and see what you’ve got that would suit? The pattern only takes one 225m/245yd skein of DK yarn.

Ember is also a great pattern if you’d like to try knitting cables for the first time

Whatever your holiday gift-giving plans are this year, I hope they also include making a donation to MSF or other charity. I know I’ll be counting my blessings as I hold my family close this Christmas.

Blog programming note: there won’t be any new posts for the next couple of weeks as I’ll be enjoying the holiday with my family. I’ll be back the week of January 4th, 2016 with lots of plans for knitalongs, new pattern news and a stashbusting challenge for us all.